


best laid plans

by arachnistar



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Future Fic, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2018-05-06 23:37:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5435090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arachnistar/pseuds/arachnistar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Never letting you take me drinking again.” </p>
<p>“You’re supposed to be the responsible one, Mrs. Price.” </p>
<p>“What?” </p>
<p> “I finally made an honest woman out of you.” Chloe waves her hand in front of Max’s face. It’s a few moments before Max grabs Chloe’s hand and brings it closer to stare at the ring there</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>Chloe and Max wake up married.</p>
            </blockquote>





	best laid plans

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place after the Save Chloe ending.

Waking up naked next to Max isn’t so unusual. Even waking up naked with a hangover next to her isn’t so unfamiliar. Waking up naked with a hangover and a band of metal around her finger, however, that’s a first.

Even though it’s the most unusual thing about this scenario, Chloe doesn’t notice the ring immediately. 

She wakes to a head stuffed with cotton, a mouth tasting of toxic waste, and a strong resolution that she is never drinking again. Well, okay, maybe it’s more like never drinking that _much_ again, but the point still stands.

Through the gap in the curtain, some light filters through. Chloe squints at that annoyingly bright ray of sunlight and then down at Max. Max is sprawled out on her stomach, taking up as much room as possible. Chloe’s scowl melts into a warm smile. Her eyes drift along Max’s face, her freckles, her soft lips, her brown hair, her bare shoulder, her slender arm, her hand which fits so perfectly into Chloe’s own, her ring, her –

Wait, what!                          

Chloe’s gaze fixates on the shiny band of metal around Max’s left ring finger. The ring is silver with a large central diamond surrounded by several smaller stones. Realization comes slowly, moving through her mind like molasses. She blinks. Then:  

“Shit. Shit, fuck, fucking shit, this was not the fucking plan. Shit.” 

Max grumbles and Chloe shuts up. She waits, still as stone with her heart jack-hammering away, but Max doesn’t make any more sounds. Chloe sighs. 

How the fuck did this happen?

Well, she knows how. She knows exactly how it happened. She was hella drunk and she popped the question. Stupid, stupid, stupid, she was such a fucking idiot. She drops her head into her pillow.  

They came to Las Vegas to celebrate Max’s 21st birthday in style. It was meant to be five nights of fun debauchery mixed with checking out every themed hotel on the Strip. Chloe brought along the ring with plans to make the most romantic proposal in the history of proposals on the last night. Only the best for Max.

Their first night, Chloe suggested going out for drinks since they were both legal now. One thing led to another, her memory got fuzzy around this point, and now here they were, married and in bed, all her plans torn to pieces because she couldn’t think.  

She shakes her head and wishes she could punch herself in the face. Repeatedly.

Although… Chloe turns to stare at the ring on Max’s finger, another much better resolution dawning on her.

Max said yes.

Max said yes!

Chloe blinks, stunned by that thought, and then she grins. Of course Max had probably been just as pissed as Chloe and probably had no recollection of it, but still. She said yes!  

“Never letting you take me drinking again,” Max’s groan and mumbled speech breaks through Chloe’s euphoria. Panic bubbles in after it. What if Max doesn’t want to stay married? Which would be totally logical, they were both drunk when it happened, and even though Max loves her, the days of Chloe doubting her are long past, she might not want marriage yet.

“You’re supposed to be the responsible one, Mrs. Price.” Chloe tries to mask her panic with a light-hearted joke and a gentle poke to Max’s ribs. The other girl shifts away and then squints up at Chloe.

“What?”

“I finally made an honest woman out of you.” Chloe waves her hand in front of Max’s face. It’s a few moments before Max grabs Chloe’s hand and brings it closer to stare at the ring there. Chloe’s ring is simpler than Max’s, just a band of silver.

“What?” She repeats. “Do you remember what happened?”

“No.”

Max laughs and then Chloe joins her. Her head throbs in pain and she isn’t quite sure _why_ they’re laughing because marriage is a really fucking serious commitment and this is like celebrity-level embarrassment status, but she can’t quite bring herself to stop either. Somehow laughing together turns to leaning in and pressing their lips together. The kiss is short and sloppy and they pull away around the same time, noses wrinkled.

“Ugh, you taste like shit.”

“Mrs. Price!” Chloe clasps a hand to her chest. “Is that any way to speak to your new wife?”

“Well, we might not even be married.” Max points out.

Chloe’s smile drops and she arches an eyebrow at her. “Alcohol get to your brain? We have rings.”

“But maybe it wasn’t official. We might not have a marriage certificate.”

“Oh.” Chloe hasn’t considered that. Things would be simpler if they were only engaged. No messy divorces necessary – although Max hadn’t mentioned wanting one and she didn’t seem devastated by the idea of being married, so maybe she was just as happy with the idea of being married as Chloe was.

They dress, take some Advil because neither wants to do anything before treating their headaches, and then start searching their hotel room. Chloe finds the certificate under her jacket along with a Polaroid photograph. She glances over the certificate first; it looks very official with signatures and everything.  

She calls out. “Found it! We’re hella married.”

While Max looks over the certificate, Chloe turns her attention to the photograph. Max and Chloe have their arms around each other, hands turned to show off their rings. Chloe is pressing a kiss to Max’s cheek while Max laughs like nothing in the world can touch them. Neither of them are really looking at the camera, too caught up in each other. 

Max moves closer to Chloe to peer over her shoulder. Her body presses against hers and Chloe leans into the contact. Maybe they’re drunken messes in the photo, but they’re also hella happy with zero regret for what they’d just done. Chloe hopes they can keep that. Still, she can’t stop the thought that maybe Max doesn’t want to be married right now, that she never got the chance to answer while sober, that maybe she’d rather wait for after she graduates college.

“What are we going to do?” Chloe asks.

Max doesn’t answer for a few minutes. Chloe continues to stare at the photograph. She wishes she could remember the moment. Better yet, she wishes she could go back to that moment and live it again sober and curl up with the memories after at her leisure.

“You know, this ring is really nice.” Max notes and it feels very much like a non-sequitur but Chloe is too nervous and hung-over to point it out. Anyway, it is a very pretty ring.   

“That’s because I already had it with me.” Chloe says without looking at Max. Her face feels warmer.  

“You did?”

Chloe starts speaking, voice picking up speed with every word. “I was planning on asking you but I was waiting for the perfect moment, I had a _plan_ and shit, but I guess drunk-me decided last night was the right moment.” She shakes her head and barks out a self-deprecating laugh. “Can’t believe I fucked this up.”

“Chloe.” Max’s voice is firm. The kind of tone she uses when Chloe is being an idiot or an asshole or both, the one that demands Chloe look at her and listen. Chloe glances up at her. “You did not fuck this up.” Max takes her hand, which helps.

“It might not be what you pictured, but I don’t care. I would have said yes even if I wasn’t drunk. We’re together, _married_ , and that’s all I care about.” Max’s smile is definitely made of starstuff, it’s just that luminous. It falters a little at the end and she adds, uncertainly, “Unless you’re regretting it?”

Chloe is quick to reassure her. “Of course I want to. I had a ring. And _plans_.” 

The smile is back. Chloe’s heart swells with the sight of it.

“I love you, Chloe.”

“I love you too.”

Chloe uses her free hand to tug Max closer by her shirt. Their lips brush and slide along each other, slow and warm and tender. When her tongue darts out, Chloe’s nose wrinkles at the sewage taste of Max’s mouth, but she doesn’t let up on the kiss. After all, they deserve a nice post-marriage kiss since she can’t remember last night’s. When they pull apart, it’s only for Max to lean her head on Chloe’s shoulder. Chloe presses a kiss to the top of Max’s head and smiles at the way she shivers.

“You still taste gross.”

“And you have a mouth full of daises and unicorn shit.” Then they’re both laughing and everything feels a little magical and Chloe gets what people mean when they talk about that newlywed glow.

\--

Once they’ve both showered and brushed their teeth and made out a little more, they head to a diner for breakfast. Every time Chloe looks over at Max and sees the ring on her finger, her heart bangs in her chest and she feels like melting. Somehow Max always catches her looking and she smiles back. That only serves to make Chloe feel like more of a puddle of punk than she already is.

It’s only once the waffles come out that Chloe remembers the big thing they have to do.

“Mom is going to be hella pissed that she didn’t come to the wedding.”

“Yeah. My parents too.” Max sighs. “We’ll make it up to them.”

Chloe nods and then nudges Max with her foot. “You can tell her.”

“What?” Max yelps. 

“She’ll react better if it comes from you.” 

A big grin blooms on Max’s face. “So you’ll tell my parents?”

Chloe taps her chin as if she’s actually considering it and then shakes her head. “Nah, you’d better do them too.”

“Speaking to your in-laws is part of being a married adult, Chloe.”

“Being an adult is overrated.”

“And being married?”

“Jury’s still out on that one.” Chloe smirks and Max rolls her eyes.

Eventually they decide to wait for after their Las Vegas trip to tell their parents. There’s no use ruining what has become their honeymoon for the sake of informing parents, who will be disappointed to have missed out on their wedding regardless of when they make the call. Chloe’s logic, but Max ends up agreeing with it. 

\--

On their final night in Vegas, they have dinner at a restaurant where most of the dishes have fancy French names that they butcher while ordering. After, they drive out of the city to a spot out in the desert. There’s nothing inherently special about the spot except that the stars are visible. When Max asks her about it, Chloe spreads her arms and gestures around them.

“Stars, sand, moon, it’s good shit for photography. Hell, I thought you were the artsy one, Maximus. Shouldn’t you be telling me this?”

Max rolls her eyes. Chloe grins in response. While Max sets up her camera for a shot of the desert and the glowing city in the distance, Chloe busies herself with her own project. She lights some candles to place delicately on her truck’s back bumper and scatters rose petals on the sand. Ideally she would have stolen Max’s ring back, but Max hasn’t taken it off since and trying to sneak it off her as she slept would have resulted in a panicked Max the next morning.

Once the shutter goes off, Chloe drops to her knee and waits. Max turns. Her mouth drops open. For a moment, Chloe is just as off-guard as Max because Max is beautiful, lit up by the moonlight like some freckled goddess come to Earth. Her heart skips a beat. She still can’t believe this is her reality, married to her best friend and the most amazing person in the world. She swallows and gives Max her biggest and most genuine smile.

“Will you marry me, Max?”

Max blinks and stares at Chloe. Her hand goes to her ring, turning it around. As if Chloe could ever forget about it. “Umm, we’re already married, Chloe.”

Chloe rolls her eyes. “I spent all this time coming up with a plan for the most romantic proposal ever and I’m not letting little facts like already being married stop me from seeing it through.”

“You’re such a sap.” Max laughs and Chloe pretends not to hear her because this is the big grand romantic gesture of her lifetime and she’s not going to get distracted by an argument on how very un-sappy and badass she is.

“So will you, Max Caulfield, er, Price, marry me for the rest of eternity, to give the middle finger to those who say we shouldn’t, to go on adventures for the rest of our days, to be partners in crime and time forever?”

“Yes, I’ll marry you, you goof.”

**Author's Note:**

> I thought about making this longer, fleshing out their lives as married folk and having to tell everyone about it, but I have a fake!married fic in mind that would cover some of the same ground so I’m leaving it like this. 
> 
> Find me on [Tumblr](http://proofthatihaveaheart.tumblr.com/) if you want. 
> 
> Feedback and questions appreciated.


End file.
